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The 15th_YR will be going on a semi-regimental break from the 21st of December until Sunday the 3rd of January. During this time we will still be doing one groupfight per week and the odd community event. However, competitively speaking, the year is now officially finished for the 15th_YR. We normally don't do these type of posts, but I thought that this year was a special year for us, warranting a little recap post going over some of the competitive highlights of the year. If you're going to read anything, please read the bottom bit. Thank you.
The birth of the comeback kids
At the start of the year we had recently come off our win of RGL S06, where we had come back from being 10-14 down against the K-KA in the final. For this reason, many considered us to be the heavy favorites to win the first tournament of the year, the GLBT cup. Our main rivals for the duration of this cup were the 92nd and the 96y. The semi-final match versus the 92nd was... eventful to say the least. Between Gi having 900 ping mid round, Desant spamming "MEET MIDDLE NOW" in admin chat and the long drawn out overtime, it was one of the strangest 1v1 matches that we have ever played. Still, it was a true challenge of our skill and patience and after a very long and drawn out match we managed to pull through with an 8-5 win. Conversely, the final itself was rather uneventful. It was a close but ordinary match against the 96y where we came out on top and won 6-4, winning us our first trophy of the year. Shout-out to our bratans from the Nr.13 for getting 3rd place!
After this we went on to the 2v2 Cup, where we teamed up with the 77y. As some of you may know, a lot of our members have played in the 77y in the past. Therefore, it was only natural that we would team up with them to win this tournament. Our main rival in this competition was yet again the 92nd, who had teamed up with the 33rd. The match against them, this time the grand final, turned out to be another memorable one. Miscommunications between us & the 77y, along with the discipline and skill of the 92nd & 33rd proved to be a deadly mix, causing us to go down 1-3 in the first half. The fact that we lost the first round of the 2nd half combined with Gi lagging out gave many of us the feeling that the match was already lost. At this point, Melsyo's impact on our morale cannot be overstated. His positive attitude cheered everyone up and showed us that the match was not over yet. We went into the following rounds with the feeling that we had nothing to lose and everything to gain. From being 1-4 down, we managed to pull it back to 4-4, which meant that it all came down to the "golden round". This golden round was quite possibly one of the most chaotic rounds we have ever experienced in the 15th. As said, Gi had timed out earlier in the match and was unable to lead personally. Therefore, Irish had taken charge of leading the line. As luck would have it, Irish also managed to time out at a pivotal moment of the round. Resulting in Gi, who was unsure if we could even hear him, attempting to take over whilst Irish was trying to lead by typing in the chat and signalling with his sword. By some miracle, we managed to get a lot of good shots off against the 92nd, after which we mopped up the melee with the 77y and won the round. Winning us our 2nd tournament of the year. Chokers no more.
The Regimental Melee Tournament followed quite quickly after this. During the playoffs we first came up against the 33rd in the quarter-finals. They were a bit of a dark horse and managed to surprise us by winning the opening 2 rounds. We quickly sorted things out and finished the match 7-2 in our favor. We then faced the 18th in the semi finals, who put up a good fight in a close match, but were ultimately beaten 7-5 by us. After this it came down to a familiar sight: we faced the 92nd in the finals. As usual, they had a strong and disciplined lineup of experienced players. The rounds went back and forth until it came to 8-8. We won the following round, after which Gi gave us a beautiful speech, enabling us to win the final round, the match and our 3rd tournament of the year.
Comeback kids V.2 Electric Boogaloo
Next in line was RGL, which was easily the biggest and most prestigious tournament of the year. Our main rival for this tournament was the 92nd, but the 18th 96y and 14e also consisted of strong lineups that could pose a challenge. There were no playoffs in this tournament, meaning that all of the matches against the other top 5 regiments felt like a grand final. We beat the 18th, 96y and 14e in three challenging yet straight-forward matches. This meant that it all came down to the last match of the season, versus the 92nd. It is safe to say that this match will go down in NW history as one of the best matches ever played in this game, if not the best. It had everything, it had all of the top tier players, playing at their highest level, at the biggest stage, in the biggest match of the year. It had drama, it had shittalk, and ultimately it had the biggest comeback in any tournament final ever. The start of this match is difficult to explain from our perspective. Perhaps our members had become slightly cocky over time and underestimated the 92nd. Perhaps the 92nd had adopted a playstyle or tactic that worked well against some of our aggressive players. Regardless of the reasons, the match started off with the 92nd taking a lead. It wasn't until the 5th round that we finally won a round. After that, the 92nd quickly extended their lead to 14-5. We lost many rounds in a row and threw the few rounds that we should've won. As the 92nd started winning, a couple of their members became quite "present" in all chat. Our regiment was called a joke, we were called "easier than the 45thN" and told to move to bannerlord. What happened next cannot fully be described in words, it was a sort of second wind fueled by the shittalk of our opponents. From being 14-5 down, we starting coming back, slowly but surely. There were a couple of insanely close rounds that could've gone either way; we clutched a close round at 10-14 and almost threw another at 12-14. We took the match round for round and somehow managed an amazing 10 round comeback to win the match 15-14, thereby winning the RGL season and successfully defending our first place title from the previous season.
The Regimental Weekend Tournament was a 1v1 tournament that spanned over the period of two weekends. It was a quick, single-elimination tournament, which essentially filled the gap between RGL and the next big regimental tournament. This is the only tournament of the year where we didn't play a direct match against the 92nd, as they were knocked out in the semi-finals by the 96y. We first came up against the 2Lr in the quarters, who we beat 6-4. We then faced the 5to who we managed to beat 9-1 in an interesting match with some weird rule-breaks, giving us our ticket to the final. Where we ultimately faced the 96y, who we managed to beat 6-4 after some very close rounds, winning us our 5th tournament of the year.
Around the same time as the RWT, Kincaid hosted the 4th season of the NWBC. In this cup we played as light infantry and teamed up with the 77y, who provided a 20 man line, and the 19th, who provided heavy cavalry and a line. This Battle Cup was definitely a breath of fresh air and one of the most fun tournaments of the year. Attempting to coordinate three regiments with a total of four units proved to be quite challenging at the start. However, we quickly found our way. On occasion, matches in the NWBC simply felt like Gaz (from the 77y) playing Napoleon: Total War, moving us around on the field like his personal army. Especially in the final, which was against the 92nd and the 33rd. In this match, the 92nd almost gave us a taste of our own medicine by coming back in the second half. We tied the match 3-3 meaning that it all came down to a "golden round", just like in the 2v2 cup. Through some lucky long shots and the leadership of our team we managed to win this final round with relative ease. Winning us our 6th and final title of 2020.
The present and the future
A couple of months ago, MRGL S01 started. This tournament isn't finished yet, but will probably finish up in the early weeks of January. We were put into group A with the 55th, 77y, 33rd, 92nd and the Nr.13. We have won every match of the group stage, finishing at the top of our group. Our victory last sunday against the Nr.13 means that the 15th_YR have officially made it through the year of 2020 completely unbeaten in every official tournament match that we participated in. As said, we will be going on a competitive break until the 3rd of January. However, the coming year looks to be just as good as the previous one. We are excited for what 2021 will bring.
As for 2020: We'd like to thank all the hosts, admins and other contributors to all of these competitions for a fantastic year of tournaments. Although we personally might not have always agreed with the amount of tournaments that were played, it cannot be denied that all of the tournaments this year were of an unprecedented quality. An equally important thank you to all the event hosts for the casual events that we were allowed to participate in, shout-out to the trench battle for being the NW highlight of many of our weeks. We'd also like to thank every single regiment that we fought in these competitions and in particular the 92nd. We know us and the 92nd don't exactly have the best of relations. But, all of the memes, banter and shittalk aside, the 92nd was a major component in making all of these competitions challenging, fun and exciting for us to play in. We genuinely couldn't have wished for a better rival to challenge us at every step, so we are weirdly thankful for that. We'd also like to thank the 77y and 19th for being the best teammates we could've wished for, we couldn't have won the 2v2 Cup or the NWBC without you, so we are eternally thankful for that. Lastly, we'd like to thank our members for their loyalty, skill and excitement throughout the year. It has been a year of change for us, losing some old members and gaining some new ones. Thank you for being part of this great community that we have.
| |  GLBT Season 1 Groups:
15th_YR 10-0 2nd_QR
15th_YR 8-2 2nd_Hess
15th_YR 10-0 7pp
Playoffs:
15th_YR 8-2 IVe_45e
15th_YR 8-5 92nd
15th_YR 6-4 96y 2v2 Championship Groups:
15th & 77y 6-2 2e & 45e
15th & 77y 7-1 16th & 19th
15th & 77y 6-2 14e & 84e
Playoffs:
15th & 77y 7-1 2Lr & Nr13
15th & 77y 5-4 92nd & 33rd RMT Season 1 Groups:
15th_YR 5-0 96y
15th_YR 5-2 56e
15th_YR 5-0 2eGren
15th_YR 5-0 64reg
Playoffs:
15th_YR 7-2 33rd
15th_YR 7-5 18th
15th_YR 10-8 92nd RGL Season 7 15th_YR 15-1 Nr.13
15th_YR 15-2 96y
15th_YR 15-3 14e
15th_YR 15-3 45thN
15th_YR 15-0 56e
15th_YR 15-1 2Lr
15th_YR 15-6 IVe_45e
15th_YR 15-5 18th
15th_YR 15-14 92nd RWT 2020 15th_YR 6-4 2Lr
15th_YR 9-1 5to
15th_YR 6-4 96y NWBC Season 4 Groups:
77y & Friends 6-0 k.u.r.w.a
77y & Friends 5-1 IVe Corps
77y & Friends 5-1 Holy Alliance
Playoffs:
77y & Friends 4-2 Palmare Hunters
77y & Friends 4-3 Yorkshire Highlanders MRGL Season 1 15th_YR 15-2 55th
15th_YR 15-4 77y
15th_YR 15-1 33rd
15th_YR 15-7 92nd
15th_YR 15-1 Nr.13 | | |
